1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a non-toxic method of eradicating vegetation through the application of a fluorescein or like dye to the vegetation, thereby resulting in an effective, cost efficient, quick acting, and safe means of disposing of unwanted or hazardous vegetation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Unwanted vegetation includes vegetation that the weekend gardener characterizes as weeds; vegetation that exhibits uncontrollable growth, such as the fast growing vine kudzu which takes over telephone poles, power lines, plants, trees and anything else in its path; and unlawful vegetation, such as the marijuana, coca and poppy plants. For all of these types of vegetations, it would be highly desirous to have a cost efficient, quick acting, easy to apply, and non-toxic method of eradication.
The eradication of the marijuana plants by law enforcement officials is of particular importance and difficulty, thereby requiring a new effective eradication means. A currently and extensively used method of eradication involves manual removal of the vegetation, and has many disadvantages. This type of eradication is expensive, time consuming, and dangerous, as it requires the marijuana plants be cut down and either hauled away to often distant loading trucks outside inaccessible fields, or burned on the spot. These activities carry with them the dangers of swinging machetes, heat exhaustion and confrontations with poisonous snakes, or the need to use large quantities of flammable fuel, to burn the green marijuana plants, which can lead to brush fires and pollution. Additionally, cultivation of marijuana plants by growers is a profitable business, and many growers arm themselves heavily in order to protect their crops, using snipers and booby traps in an effort to intimidate federal employees and public land users.
Another method of eradication often used involves the use of herbicides. While non-toxic herbicides are preferable, their general ineffectiveness leads to the more frequent use of toxic herbicides. Unfortunately, these highly toxic herbicides, such as Paraquat which has been used extensively for the eradication of the marijuana plant, are undetectable by ordinary means once sprayed on the vegetation. Thus, there is nothing to prevent an unscrupulous grower from harvesting the marijuana plants and selling it to unsuspecting buyers even after it has been contaminated.
As a result of the disadvantages of these prior methods of eradicating vegetation such as the marijuana plant, an improved method is needed. Applicant's method is designed specifically to be highly effective and overcome many of the dangers involved with prior methods of eradication. Further, Applicant's method which uses a fluorescein dye, facilitates safe and easy application, provides discoloration of the harmful vegetation such that its treatment is highly noticeable, and reacts quickly.
Other uses of fluorescein dye can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,843 which recites a process whereby the fluorescein dyes control algae growth in open water systems, such as a water cooling towers, by absorbing and accordingly blocking the light necessary for photosynthesis, and thereby preventing algae growth. This method does not utilize or suggest direct absorption through the roots of vegetation resulting in the death of grown plants.